What began with one small contract to build four double residential buildings in New Orleans has, over the course of a century, become a $600 million revenue-generating operation with a name nearly ubiquitous with construction in the metro area.

Ted Jackson/The Times-PicayuneBoh Bros. Construction has managed through good times and bad by finding a steady supply of work. The 100-year-old business is run by President Robert Boh, left, and Vice President Steven Boh.Boh Bros. Construction, a 1,500-employee enterprise based in an unassuming office building on South Tonti Street, turned 100 years old this year. In that time, the company has been behind the transformation of the state's bridge system, construction of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, and numerous post-Hurricane Katrina repairs, including rebuilding the I-10 twin span.

"As far as everyone is concerned, they have a good reputation for doing honest work and being competitive," said Robert Mendoza, director of the City of New Orleans Department of Public Works and a previous employee of a competing construction firm. "It's always good to work with them because they've worked with the city for so many years on so many projects we know that they know how we want streets built or how we want things done. A lot of times with Boh Bros., even if there are small questions or revisions, they already know the answer."

The company's anniversary comes, however, as the construction industry struggles through a severe contraction nationwide. The number of competitors has increased, while the number of available jobs has shrunk.

Boh Bros. has not been immune from the downturn. But for a company that has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression and Hurricane Katrina, the currently decline is far from troubling, Boh Bros. President Robert Boh said.

"Construction is a very cyclical business, and through the cycles we've managed a pretty steady payroll, a pretty steady workflow," Boh said. "By finding things to do during these trying times, we've remained successful."

The A.P. Boh Construction Co., as Boh Bros. was originally known, was started in 1909 by Arthur Boh as a residential construction firm. The company's first project was the construction of four double residential buildings on Banks Street in Mid-City.

But the foundation for the company's current work was laid after World War 1, when Boh Construction transformed into a municipal contractor -- building sidewalks, curbs and storm drains for a rapidly expanding city.

"This was a big city and it didn't have some of the modern touches that other big cities had," Boh said. "It needed infrastructure."

Boh Bros. laid most of the city's sewage lines. The company's name was changed to Boh Bros. in 1935 when Arthur Boh's Brother, Henry, joined the firm.

The company's growth was stymied during the Great Depression but resumed when expansion into suburban areas of New Orleans, including Gentilly Woods and Pontchartrain Park in the 1950s and '60s, necessitated the building of highways and bridges. Boh Bros. built the I-10 High Rise over the Industrial Canal and the Pontchartrain Expressway.

"The company, like most companies, really struggled in the Depression era," Boh said. "There were about 15 years when there wasn't much. It wasn't until the end of World War II that it got its next big boost," Boh said. "And that kind of transitioned into the '50s and '60s with the interstate."

Today, Boh Bros. is a diversified business, whose segments include not only municipal work but also pile driving and dock building in the marine and petroleum industries.

Last year, the company had revenues of $600 million, Boh said.

The company's long history makes it an oddity among its peers, according to the chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, the largest trade association for the construction industry.

"It's very rare for a construction company that's family-owned to make it to 100 years," Stephen Sandherr said. "The fact that it's lasted for 100 years is a testament to their commitment to New Orleans."

Mendoza said the company's long shelf-life is also a reflection of its management. Family-owned companies often don't last from generation to generation because they are the vision of one person. When that person is no longer able to run the company, in many cases it dies. Boh Bros., by contrast, is organized so that it continued even without its founders.

"What you see from Boh Bros. is a company that is set up as a legitimate financial company. At some point in their evolution they realized they weren't just a family-run business," Mendoza said. "It really helps for stability and it really helps for entities in the city. We really want a company that doesn't depend on one bright person. Their corporation is pretty well designed and sustainable."

Many of the city's landmarks were built through Boh Bros. The company had a hand in building the Louisiana Superdome, working as a subcontractor to drive pilings. It was the company's largest pile driving contract to date at the time.

Moreover, Boh Bros. subsidiary Broadmoor Construction, created in 1973, worked on the second and third phases of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

Louisiana Department of Transportation Secretary William Anker said he has also been especially pleased with the firm's post-Katrina work.

"The department has been very fortunate to have a company of this quality available to take on our work," Anker said. They've been a constant partner with us over the decades in providing quality transportation to the citizens of Louisiana,"

Boh Bros. set up shop in Baton Rouge after the 2005 storm. With no access to computers and payroll data for about a month, employees calculated wages and wrote checks by hand.

"The conditions here were terrible to be in. We were working 24 hours a day to open the twin spans," Boh said.

The project took only 28 days and is now Boh's proudest achievement.

"We look at what people went through to get here, and it has to be the high point of our 100 years," Boh said.

Boh Bros. recently waived half of its fee to remodel the Big Lake area of City Park, transforming the park's once drab entrance with a walking path, docks and paddle boat launch.

"They made the project doable," said Larry Schmidt, director of the New Orleans office of the Trust for Public Land, which spearheading the renovation. "We couldn't have done that without them. We had their skills and expertise in construction management and in the actual construction, which moved alone very quickly."

For three consecutive years -- 2004, 2005 and 2006 -- the company received the AGC Build America Award from the construction association.

"There are not many construction firms within the AGC or outside of it that have the respect that Boh Bros. has from their peers," Sandherr said. "They have a high commitment to quality work. They treat their people well. They are leaders in their community and they've been leaders in AGC."

Still, Boh Bros. has not been immune to the economic slowdown. Although there are many post-Katrina building projects in the pipeline, the decline in new construction nationwide has meant that out-of-state competitors have moved into New Orleans hoping to shore up their businesses. The competition has slowed business for Boh Bros.

"This is not as busy a time as it was a couple years ago," Boh said. "Investments in the private sector are not taking place to a large extent. We're lucky to have public sector work."

But even competition for those public jobs has increased, particularly in the past six months.

"We're definitely seeing the competition," Mendoza said. We're noticing on projects we're putting out to bid how many more bidders and companies are putting in for work more than we were seeing a few years ago."

The increased competition has opened up city contracts to smaller firms that had not been able to land work with the city because they lacked enough bonding capacity. Those companies are now getting subcontracting jobs with larger out-of-state firms. That creates a batch of companies Boh Bros. has not previously had to compete with.

"Boh is going to have to decide, as the other large companies will do, if that's going to be a short term issue that will go away or a long-term issue that they'll have to deal with," Mendoza said. "I think some of these companies will stay around and that's not necessarily a bad thing because it opens it up to companies that initially didn't have enough bonding capacity to work for the city of New Orleans."

Boh, however, believes that if the company could weather the Great Depression and a storm that pushed it out of the city for weeks, it will survive the current recession.

"We just keep trying to find things to build," Boh said.

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Jaquetta White can be reached at jwhite@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3494.